


Where the Heart Is

by midnightsnapdragon



Series: Nostalgia [17]
Category: Lunar Chronicles - Marissa Meyer
Genre: F/M, Home theme, The Lunar Chronicles Ship Weeks, tlc ship weeks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-22
Updated: 2017-10-22
Packaged: 2019-01-21 11:52:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,737
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12457197
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/midnightsnapdragon/pseuds/midnightsnapdragon
Summary: A moon girl comes to a genie for help.





	Where the Heart Is

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the 2017 Ship Weeks, themed "Home".

“Passage for one, please.”

The genie glanced up from the pack of cards he was idly floating over his fingers, the other fist propping up his chin. When his bored black eyes caught on the girl at his booth, though, the cards swooped down to the table. He looked her over from head to toe and beamed.

“My, my. What’s a moon girl doing in little Rieux?”

“Would you keep your voice _down?”_ the girl hissed. Heavy work gloves covered her fisted hands. She wore cargo pants and laced combat boots and a lifetime’s worth of city dust on her face. Altogether, she didn’t look like someone to be messed with.

But that meant nothing to the genie. The genie messed with everyone.

“Oh …” he murmured, peering closer at her. She flinched away. “Oh, that’s very interesting …”

One of the dangers of asking a genie for help is that any one of them could spill your secrets in a matter of seconds. If you kept them in a jar, they’d smash it against the wall. If you hid them in a nook or cranny of your mind, a genie would pry them out. If you tried putting them in a brass treasure chest, he could produce a key that unlocked anything. And so it shouldn’t surprise anyone, really, that this genie – a particularly talented one, as suggested by his vibrant blue skin and curling horns – could also see the ghostly silver crown perched on the moon girl’s head.

 _She doesn’t know how to take it off, poor thing,_ he thought, and smiled at her. “You’re not just any moon-dweller, are you?”

The girl leaned forward, hands braced on the table, and said through clenched teeth, “Passage – for – one.”

“Okay!” he said brightly.

She blinked.

“Where will you be going on this fine sunny day?”

“I –” She hesitated, looking away. “I want to go home.”

“Hmm,” he said. “See, that might be a problem. The last time I was on the moon, I managed to offend half the aristocracy, plus the queen-regent herself, and only barely got away to Mars. I had to hide there for a quarter century until it was safe.”

The girl frowned at him. “How long ago was this?”

The genie grinned, his sharp teeth glinting in the sunlight. “Almost never.”

Confusion flickered across her face, followed by annoyance. “I don’t have time for this. Here.” She tossed six gold pieces under his nose. He made no move to catch them and they clattered to the table. “Take me home.” 

The genie raised one eyebrow at the money. Pursed his lips.

“Six golden dragons _is_ your fee for a teleport, isn’t it?” she said, her impatience concealing an undercurrent of hysteria.

“It is,” sighed the genie. “But I think the princess Selene could do better than that.”

“Don’t call me that. My name is Cinder.”

“Fine, fine. Cinders and ashes. I have something better in mind that you could pay me with.”

Her gaze darkened. “And what’s that?”

The genie smiled, slooooowly.

"What is your happiest memory?”

The girl, Cinder, looked down at his outstretched hand, and her face shuttered. _She must not have many happy memories._

“Just give me your hand,” urged the genie. “I’ll know which one it is, even if you don’t.”

“And afterward, you’ll take me home?” she whispered.

“Yes, yes. Fine. Probably.”

She took the genie’s sky-blue hand, the sparkling heat of magic humming between his skin and hers, and the last thing she knew was the genie’s black bottomless eyes that swallowed her whole.

.

_The peace festival in New Beijing. The streets were crowded with shouting, cheering people, the cobblestones showered with flower petals and lucky party favours from the parade. Sun lanterns hung from every window awning. The tail end of a red paper dragon flickered around the next corner._

_Beside her, the boy in the gray sweater was laughing, in high spirits. “I should have come down here years ago!”_

_Cinder grinned and took his hand again. “The palace can’t have anything on this, can it?”_

_“Not until the evening ball.”_

_Knowing exactly what his thoughts were on the ball and who should be attending with him, she bit her lip and tugged him to a different kiosk. “Here, what about apple bobbing?”_

_“Oh, stars. Not to be a spoiled prince or anything, but is that sanitary?”_

_Cinder smiled. He was starting to say that a lot: “Not to be a prince, but … “Androids clean and replace the water for each contestant. You’ll be fine.”_

_“I bet I can rescue more apples than you.”_

_“What are they, damsels in distress?”_

_“Three copper pieces,” the kiosk manager sighed, looking supremely weary._

_She tossed him the coins, then positioned herself over a bucket full of clear water. Kai did the same to her left. As the manager counted down, she glanced up at the crown prince, who was about to plunge his face into a water bucket and lunge, teeth-first, at some floating fruit, like any normal citizen of the Commonwealth. She couldn’t quite believe her eyes. She couldn’t believe her heart either, though for an entirely different reason._

_On the count of three, just before she turned away, Kai glanced up and flashed her a smile – that disorienting, carefree smile that knew no bounds – and Cinder missed the cue. She turned hastily, dizzily, and splashed face-first into the chilly bucket_

.

The moon-dweller yanked her hand away. She stared at it, incredulous, then turned her puzzled eyes on him. _“That’s_ my happiest memory?”

His indigo lips curled at the edges. “One of them, at any rate.” He steepled his hands, watching her carefully. “So who was that nice boy?”

“No one,” she snapped.

“Really? I suppose he could have been joking about the spoiled prince thing” – the girl’s eyes widened – “but it sure didn’t seem like it.”

“Enough! I gave you my happiest memory, you take me home. We had a deal.”

The humour left the genie’s eyes. “What makes you think I know what’s home to you? Granted, I know a lot of things without being told. Magic can tell me what’s inside your head. But it can’t tell me what’s in …” He tapped his own chest, right over the heart, “… here.”

“You mean you don’t know either?” said Cinder, her words tinged with desperation. “You can’t help?”

The genie considered her. Moon-dweller, machine girl, mechanic. He knew it all. But some things even enchantment couldn’t decipher. He knew what she was, _who_ she was, but not who she was meant to be. He knew about her responsibilities – the ones she shouldered, the ones she didn’t dare take up – but he couldn’t tell her what to do with them. He knew where she had fit in all her life, but not where she _belonged._

“I am sure you know by now,” he told her quietly, “that home is where the heart is.”

“Yes, but I don’t know _where_ my heart is!”

“You are used to thinking with your head. Part of you tugs you back to that great city where you grew up. Part of you says the crystal palace in the sky must be your home, for it was there that you were born and there you are meant to take the crown.” The genie narrowed his eyes at her. “And still another part of your mind is repelled by both these things and longs for that empty horizon, for your own life free of ties and strings. You desire freedom, is this not so?”

Turmoil churned behind Cinder’s brown eyes as she nodded.

“So … Linh Cinder, Princess Selene, heir to the crystal throne. Where is your heart? Or should I say … with whom?”

“I guess it’s not anywhere at the moment,” she said softly.

The blue, horned man considered her for a moment.

“What drives you to the city, then?” he asked.

“Excuse me?”

“I would have thought nothing would keep your heart in New Beijing once your little sister was gone. But I see that someone is tugging on a string to bring you back. It’s not just that you grew up there. What’s in New Beijing?”

“The emperor of the Eastern Commonwealth,” she said stiffly.

"No need to be sarcastic. I meant, what do you miss? What makes you want to go back?”

She closed her eyes. “The emperor of the Eastern Commonwealth.”

The genie paused. Peered up at her. 

“What, _really?”_

She sighed. “Yeah.”

“That’s the boy who was with you? I was joking before about the spoiled prince thing.”

“He wasn’t.”

The genie gave a low whistle. “My, my, my. Princess Selene and Emperor Kaito. Who would have thought?” 

And he promptly started to laugh, shaking off the somber mood.

“What?” Cinder said defensively.

“This is too precious,” said the genie between guffaws. His blue face was tinged purple from the rush of blood. “Oh, this is so easy. Dearest princess, you have it all cut out for you!”

“Please,” she said, crossing her arms, “explain.”

It took a moment for him to calm down, for the laughter abate so he could speak calmly.

“You might not want your birthright now, but you should get started early, yes? So here’s what I propose: you go to New Beijing. You demand an audience with your emperor, who will probably give you an informal one anyway. Tell him who you are. He’s been looking for Princess Selene, hasn’t he? If your aunt the queen-regent won’t give up the throne for you, and you’re forced to march on the capital, why, then he will stand by you!”

“But this doesn’t tell me what I want to know,” Cinder burst out, thumping a fist on the table and dislodging the box of cards. “Where is home? Where can I go when it becomes too much? Where can I lay my head to rest at night, without having to worry about the cost?”

“Nowhere,” said the genie. “Not yet. You will have to make yourself a home. Take back the palace, your birthright, and perhaps you will find a family there. Fall in love. Make some _friends.”_ He stood up, offered her his hand. A mischievous smile tripped across his face. “Or, you know, you could marry the emperor and make New Beijing your home as well. There’s that option.”

Cinder closed her eyes and took the genie’s hand.

“All right. Take me to New Beijing.”


End file.
